


Sburb Family Reunion

by PFDiva



Series: Sburb Family Reunion [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Other, Post-Sburb/Sgrub
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-04
Updated: 2013-02-04
Packaged: 2017-11-28 04:10:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/670120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PFDiva/pseuds/PFDiva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The survivors of Sburb have a reunion, but two of the Striders are a bit....overwhelmed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sburb Family Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> This was just an exploration of the similarities and differences between Alpha and Beta Dirk. Since all the human characters feature, the kids are identified by their first name, and the guardians by Mr. or Mrs. Blank, with the notable exceptions of the Striders.

'Sburb Family Reunion'

Hah, that's funny.

Only it's really kind of not.

It's the kind of joke John or Jade would find funny. You suddenly understand why Dave likes them.

The other Dave.

Not your brother.

/Your/ brother is this weird kind of too-sincere dork who tries too hard.

You weird him out as much as he weirds you out, but in the way where you both kind of circle each other nervously as you try to figure out how to live together and be something resembling a family.

Considering he's the one driving you to the reunion, you figure you're both doing pretty well.

The reunion was Mrs. Egbert's idea, or maybe old Mr. Crocker's. They wanted to keep the "family," such as it was, together.

You'd never admit it, but you appreciate the sentiment.

The trolls have their own reunion, Sgrub, they call it, and there's one when all of you, trolls and humans, get together. But this isn't that. This one is just for the humans.

You've all been doing this for three years, so certain relationships have already been established.

For instance, Roxy enjoys spending time with Mr. Egbert and the younger Mr. Crocker, Jane and John's fathers, when the two men weren't planning pranks for their respective charges. The two men did all the baking, presumably with Jane and Mrs. Egbert's help, and there is never a shortage of sweets.

Jake alternates between arguing movies with John and challenging Jade to wrestling matches. You suspect he misses the brobot, because she tends to thoroughly trounce him.

Jane and Mrs. Egbert spend their time at the reunions exchanging recipes and comparing notes on their lives lived. The older Mr. Crocker and John avoid each other like the plague. You aren't sure if it's a case of mutual dislike, as it is with Dave and your brother, or an inability to overcome the bizarre what-if feeling that seems to plague Rose and Roxy's mother.

Like you and your brother, Roxy and her mother have a difficult relationship that the older woman goes to Rose's mother about. For two women with nothing in common, they get along surprisingly well.

Rose, meanwhile, alternated between chatting with Dave and scribbling to herself in a private little journal. Dave said she wrote wizard stories, but you think she takes notes on the way your brother and the older Mr. Crocker spend so much time hanging out, even though your brother rolls his eyes and mocks Crocker's corny jokes at every turn, while the eldest Crocker declares your brother a humorless upstart.

Mrs. English and Mr. Harley tend to discuss quietly between themselves, only letting Mrs. Egbert and the older Mr. Crocker in on their conversations. You suspect there is old trauma and long-untended hurt there. Or they were working together to create something that would blow the planet up. It was a bit of a crapshoot with them.

When you get out of the car, your brother's already yelling at old Mr. Crocker about his latest comedy show, and Jade's trouncing Jake while Mr. Harley's booming laughter rolls across the picnic area and Mrs. English encourages her grandson to 'just grab her there!'

Dave points and laughs at John's pie-covered face, unaware that he's about to share in his friend's fate while the older Lalondes loudly (and somewhat drunkenly) debate the merits of creating a transdimensional transportalizer for profit.

Roxy's managed to get into a fierce argument with Rose over the journal Roxy's trying to spy into, or its contents, while Jane and Mrs. Egbert hoot with laughter and it's finally too much for you. Too much people, too much noise, too much too much.

You flashstep away from the main picnic area, over a hill and into the big stone reststop-style bathroom. You are both startled and unsurprised to find the other Dirk there, sitting on a little wooden bench and playing what sounds like a fighting game.

There's a Nintendo DS sitting in the empty space next to him, and you take him up on the silent invitation.

At the first reunion, the pair of you had awkwardly attempted to converse with one another, you shy and he maladjusted, both of you curious introverts, unwilling to share your secrets, but wanting to know who you had not become.

At the exhortations of your respective brothers, you'd both come without entertainment, and you'd both agreed it was a regrettable decision.

The second year, he'd come with a half-finished smuppet, and you'd come with a miniature rapbot. You'd both been surprised to realize that an abandoned hobby had become a driving passion in the other, though his stitches, naturally done by hand, were enviably smaller and neater than your own.

This year, he teaches you how to kick virtual ass. Though you are a mechanical genius, you have little experience with 21st century handheld game systems, and you have to learn how to use the controls. He doesn't speak or interfere with your learning process, though he familiarly loops his arm around your chest to demonstrate his techniques when you growl frustration at him and the screen.

By the time your brothers come to find you, you're slumped against his chest, elbows propped on his godawful huge arms, his chin ruining your hair while the pair of you virtually duke it out.

"Bro, stop being a pedo."

"Kid, could you /be/ more narcissistic?"

They speak at the same time, and you feel the other Dirk hunch in one himself, even as you flinch at your brother's words. You can't defend yourself, so you speak up for your alternate self. When he speaks at the same time as you, you realize he had the same thought.

"You're just jealous that he likes me better."

"/Someone/ needs to pay attention to him."

When they both flinch as if they'd been struck, you simultaneously realize that the other Dirk isn't as physical with his Dave as he is with you, and that your brother /worries/ about his parenting skills.

Your brother recovers first, turning on his heel with a curt "C'mon, kid," while the other Dave shrinks into himself. If the other Dirk feels like as much of an ass as you do, he'll apologize to his Dave for you, but you have your own brother to reassure.

You scramble to your feet and throw yourself at your brother's back, wrapping your arms around him, stopping him at the door. You feel him stiffen with surprise under your arms. You can count on one hand the number of times you've hugged him unprompted, and because you freak out about unexpected physical contact, he doesn't try to hug you.

"You're a great brother," you tell his back, "And I know you don't get me--I don't even get me--but you still /try./ I don't mind that you're always out making movies, because then I can appreciate when you're home."

Behind you, you can hear the other Dirk murmuring soft reassurances to the other Dave and the younger Dave's petulant refutations. You tune them out in favor of squeezing your brother tighter.

"I'm sorry I don't tell you how much I appreciate you. I'm a teenager and I've never had a brother before, and I'm really dumb about this whole thing."

You feel him relax under your arms, gently laughing as he says, "At least you have being a teenager for an excuse. What's mine?"

"All the other stuff?"

"Oh, right. That."

He squeezes your hands, then pauses and looks at the DS you forgot you still had.

"What's this?"

You retrieve your arms to look at it as your brother twists to look down at you. It's the other Dirk's and you turn to point, "Oh, it's his--" You pause at the sight of the other Dave wrapped up in his brother's arms. He can't see you and the other Dirk isn't paying attention, but you're still embarrassed for them, caught in such an intimate, emotional moment.

Your own brother, clearly understanding your dilemma, wraps an arm around your shoulders, guiding you out of the bathroom. You can return the Nintendo to its owner next year.


End file.
